All The Pieces Where They Lie
by Dreamer on south 5th st
Summary: When one story ends, another always begins. Ties left hanging in the light of truth, hearts lost in the never ending darkness...A war calling for blood to be spilled in the pursuit of peace. Our story didn't end in that troubling fantasy. No, our story has only just begun...Starting with the scattered pieces left to fade forever. Pieces from the one who could save us all... sequel.


"_What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. _

_The end is where we start from"_

T. S. Elliot

Chapter one: Happy Birthday!

It's amazing how quick times seems to pass. Today one wakes up and realizes that they are no longer the child of yesterday. No, that child is long gone. And as they look into the mirror, they see that child's body and awareness as that of an adult, but it is the adult's heart that still houses the child within.

Acceptance is a difficult concept to grasp. For most of our life, we live in denial of many things. It's a form of protection for our minds and hearts. But when the time comes to accept the reality because there is no more denying, the heart and mind slip into a depression. We become sorrowful as we do with death. We feel the loss because we know now there is no bringing back that which is gone. Therefore, we take the loss and plant a seed to take root and grow. To create a strength to keep our heads high and our hearts safe. A wall to keep that tiny bit of light safe from the darkness of the reality.

* * *

Gazing unaware into the mirror before myself, I braced the edges of the ceramic bathroom sink, studying the image of the girl reflected back at me. Although I look into the mirror every morning, I couldn't bring myself to recognize the girl that stared back into my eyes. She had the same long chestnut hair, pale skin, and heart shaped face, but there was something wrong with her eyes.

Those eyes…

Up until last year, just a week before my 17th birthday, my eyes had been a hunter green color. Now, a metallic gold laced the contours of my iris. The eyes that stared back at me were alien. I guess I should count myself fortunate that they had not changed completely gold in color.

I stared at the reflection of the girl. No, the reflection of the woman I guess it would be, because today it was her 18th birthday. That would make her an adult, therefore made myself an adult and a grown woman.

It was such a difficult concept to grasp. I was eighteen. The age marked in my culture that made a child no longer a child, but an adult that assumed adult responsibilities overnight. Now was the time to pick my future out of a hat. To make mistakes and take the consequences as an educated grown up.

But I didn't want to do all that. In my heart, I felt as if now I was free forever, when I knew in my mind that I was still bound in the chains of society and expectations.

Over the past year, I have fallen away from the world. My mind has entered another realm of consciousness that makes it difficult to focus on the physical reality. Something happened in the transition from _that_ universe. Something changed in myself. Something I couldn't see or feel, but I knew it was there. Kaity told me that she had noticed the change in me. The faraway look in my eyes and the edgy way I moved and responded to everything.

What she doesn't know is that ever since that day we returned to Earth, I'd been having delusions and dreams that haunt my thoughts. For a year, I'd been seeing things not there. Hearing voices and sounds from nowhere. At first, I thought that maybe Kaity might have been having the same issue, but when I had tried to broach the subject she didn't understand what I was saying. So there I was in this alone.

Well, not completely alone.

After that last day on the cruise, Kaity and I kept in touch with the two boys we met. They lived far from us, around six to seven hours, but we had Skype and we all had cell phones. After about three months, Kaity and Seth started dating and Riven and I started to go out two months later. Riven has been my guardian angel. The only one I trusted with my feelings and with what I was going through. I wish he was here with me now, but he couldn't make it down this weekend due to a track meet. We had plans to celebrate my birthday next weekend. I was disappointed, but I understand commitments.

So this weekend it was just me, my family, and Kaity celebrating. Not that I was in the mood to celebrate, but I have to give the world what it wants.

This morning, Kaity and I went to the mall and to see a movie. This evening, the two of us and my family were heading to a Starbucks near here to hang out with my local youth group for a couple hours before heading to dinner. Tomorrow, Kaity and I planned on going to Walt Disney World like we usually do every year to celebrate both of our birthdays. Kaity's birthday was last week.

After the shopping trip, I felt coated in sweat from running around, hence the shower I had just taken that lead into my reflection of me. Looking away from the mirror, I finished my bathroom/shower routine and left the steamy atmosphere, heading back to my room.

My room was fairly large. I had a full sized bed in the far left corner, a ring of shelves high above my head about a foot below the high ceiling. On my right side wall, my dad installed a wall of wooden shelves that I keep my many books, art supplies, and school supplies on. There was a three foot wide, four foot high gap in the wall of shelves that held my computer desk and my black colored Windows computer. The red computer chair was empty, so that's where I sat when I arrived because the entirety of my bed was being hoarded be Kaity as she devoured my selection of manga. And she was on the phone.

"Seth?" I questioned as I fired up my computer.

She nodded briefly, not pulling her attention away from the book in her hands and the voice on the other end of the phone.

Once my login screen came up and I was in, I went through and checked my emails and Facebook. So many notifications blinked when I opened the window. That's what annoys the hell out of me. Most of the people on Facebook haven't talked to me in several months, don't acknowledge me in public, but post a birthday message on my profile wall. Really? Just don't post anything.

"-just got out of the shower." I heard from behind me. I turned my head with a raised eyebrow. I didn't hear the entire sentence, but she was talking about me. Kaity glance at me with a grin. "Yeah, I'll tell her." Looking my way she did a hand flourish at my computer. "Plug in your webcam, Riven's going to call."

My heart jumped a little, as it usually does whenever I'm about to see Riven. It was a happy little flutter and I never grew tired of the feeling.

I reached behind my computer tower and connected the webcam USB so that it would function. I unplugged it as a precaution to webcam hackers. I opened up Skype and made sure I was online. A little grin spread across my lips when I saw the little green dot next to his name light up. The call came through asking if I wanted to answer or not and I hit the green 'yes' button. The video feed opened up, forming a picture of my grinning blond boyfriend.

"_Happy Birthday!_"

I giggled stupidly at his excitement. "Hi," I smiled, "and thanks."

"_So, eighteen…"_ He shrugged with a smile_. "How does it feel?"_

"Feels like seventeen. I don't know, how about you ask yourself? You've been eighteen far longer than I have." His birthday was in July. That was a good weekend spent at the beach with his family. Kaity went along as well, of course, because Seth shared the same birthday. Yup, we were dating twins. But of course, I knew the deeper reasons behind the reality.

The thought brought my hand up to the half heart charm that hung around my neck. The charm was perfect. The silver never tarnished even though I wore it almost every minute of the day. And the warmth still held it. My tiny light that connected me to him.

"_Sam_?"

I snapped my attention back to the screen where I had left Riven hanging in my silent thinking. "Hm?"

"_Are you alright_?" He asked with a note of concern. He knew the look of my face when I left this world for the other. My eyes went from his worried blue ones to the glint of silver that represented the other half of the charm around my neck. The link that brought us together. I smiled at that.

"I'm fine." I assured him with a wave of my hand. "Been out of it all day. I'm okay." I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't think I was. "Seriously, I'll be okay. I miss you."

My promise of being fine in the future seemed to put him more at ease. "_I miss you, too. I wish I was there._"

I didn't say anything to that. Words could not express how much I wished he were here…how much I needed him with me today. God help me tomorrow.

"_So what are you doing today_?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Well, Kaity and I went on a shopping spree this morning and around six or seven we're going out to meet with some friends and go have dinner."

"_Sounds like fun_." He smiled. I couldn't help but smile at his smile.

"_Riv! Time to go!_" Seth's' head poked into his room.

I waved at his brunette haired brother. They looked just alike with the exception of their hair. Really creepy sometimes. "Hi, Seth."

"_Hey Sam, Happy Birthday._" He came up and poked his head in next to his brothers. "_Sorry, I have to steal away your boyfriend. We have to go if we're going to get anywhere tonight._"

"It's okay, I understand." I smiled, if not a little sad. "I'll see you guys next weekend, right?"

_"Right,_" He said, hastily. _"See ya, Riv will call you later after the meet._"

"Good luck!" I chimed in just before the call was disconnected. Annoyed, I turned around in my chair to look at Kaity. "I'm going to kill your boyfriend."

She gave me a look of defeat. "What can I do? He condemns himself."

Getting up from the red computer chair, I went to my closet and picked out my favorite pair of blue indigo blue jeans, the bottom edges frayed from dragging on the ground when I walk. Rifling through my shirt drawer I pulled out a dark gray tank top and a thin black cotton jacket. I threw them onto the computer chair so that I could just grab it when I decided to change before we leave in a few hours. Going over to my bed, I laid down next to Kaity on the brown and blue blankets, pushing over all the books to make room. We didn't say anything, but I got the feeling that she could feel the anxiety and sadness I was feeling. When I was settled, she shifted her position to lay her head against my abdomen, using her touch to comfort me and I relaxed a bit.

The uneasiness wouldn't go away. I don't know if it was my restless mind...if it was just another weird episode of mine...

Reaching toward the pile of manga, I pulled one of the Fullmetal Alchemist books out and got lost in another world that didn't ask anything of me.


End file.
